Paul Kirchner: A New Haven Legend Returns to IC3 2025!

IC3 • March 15, 2025 • New Haven CT

Jan 21, 2025

As a newcomer to the New England indie comic scene, I was thrilled when Paul Kirchner humbly applied for a table at the first Indie Comics Creator Con. Paul’s kindness and talent left a lasting impression, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome him back for year two.

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Born in New Haven in 1952, Paul Kirchner attended the Cooper Union School of Art with the ambition to eventually draw comic books. He dropped out during his junior year in 1973 when he began getting work in that field, penciling horror stories for DC and working as an assistant to Tex Blaisdell, Ralph Reese, and Wally Wood. Paul wrote and drew the Dope Rider comic for High Times magazine and created the regular feature “the bus” for HEAVY METAL. He collaborated with the Dutch mystery writer Janwillem van de Wetering on the graphic novel MURDER BY REMOTE CONTROL. In the 1980s, Paul began doing more mainstream illustration, much of it comics-related. He did design and packaging work in the toy industry and worked as a freelance storyboard artist in advertising. After his freelance work dried up about ten years ago, he returned to comics, producing new Dope Rider strips for HIGH TIMES and new bus strips for a second collection. The French publisher Editions Tanibis has put out six hardcover collections of Kirchner’s work: the bus, THE BUS 2, AWAITING THE COLLAPSE, A FISTFUL OF DELIRIUM, HIERONYMUS & BOSCH, and MURDER BY REMOTE CONTROL, in French and English language editions.

You can chat with Paul on Instagram (@stayingamused) and check out his website (thedoperider.blogspot.com).